WSJ: Romney Should Be Obama Running Mate

The Wall Street Journal today dealt a crushing blow to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign saying he would be better running as Barack Obama’s running mate rather than as a Republican.

In a devastating editorial, the Journal called Romney “a politician who still doesn’t seem to understand how government works,” and said “his highest principle seems to be faith in his own expertise.”

The paper attacked Romney for signing off on healthcare legislation when he was Massachusetts governor. It called the state’s bill “the prototype for President Obama’s version” and said it had given national health care a “huge political boost.”

“Mr. Romney now claims ObamaCare should be repealed, but his failure to explain his own role or admit any errors suggests serious flaws both in his candidacy and as a potential President,” the paper said.

The scathing critique comes on the day Romney gives a major speech on health care in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Journal said that just like the President’s plan, RomneyCare “was predicated on the illusion that insurance would be less expensive if everyone were covered’” adding: “Even if this theory were plausible, it is not true in Massachusetts today. So as costs continue to climb, Mr. Romney's Democratic successor now wants to create a central board of political appointees to decide how much doctors and hospitals should be paid for thousands of services.

“The Romney camp blames all this on a failure of execution, not of design. But by this cause-and-effect standard, Mr. Romney could push someone out of an airplane and blame the ground for killing him. Once government takes on the direct or implicit liability of paying for health care for everyone, the only way to afford it is through raw political control of all medical decisions.”

The editorial concludes: “The debate over ObamaCare and the larger entitlement state may be the central question of the 2012 election. On that question, Mr. Romney is compromised and not credible. If he does not change his message, he might as well try to knock off Joe Biden and get on the Obama ticket.”

The Wall Street Journal today dealt a crushing blow to Mitt Romney s presidential campaign saying he would be better running as Barack Obama s running mate rather than as a Republican.
In a devastating editorial, the Journal called Romney a politician who still...